Iran’s New Supreme Leader’s Billion Dollar Holdings and Hidden Documentation Revealed
Khamenei’s financial agent, Ali Ansari, has circumvented sanctions, laundered money for the IRGC and the regime, and financed the IRGC and its proxy groups, particularly Hezbollah, from London and other parts of the world
Following an agreement among various factions of the Islamic Republic—including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—after eight days of deliberation, Ali Khamenei’s second son, Mojtaba Khamenei, who was wounded during the war, has been abruptly elevated to the rank of ayatollah and proclaimed the new supreme leader of the Islamic Republic.
Khamenei, the new supreme leader, controls a vast financial empire worth at least $3 billion in London, Britain, the UAE, and several other European countries, in addition to Iran, yet none of these assets appear in his name on official ownership documents.
He uses these properties and assets to facilitate money laundering and to finance institutions under his control. Khamenei is the real owner of several luxury properties in central and north London, one of which is located only a few metres from the Israeli Embassy, in one of the most heavily guarded areas of the British capital.
Ali Ansari, an Iranian businessman, is Khamenei’s agent for property acquisitions and investments. It appears the two established a close relationship in the late 1980s. While some have speculated this acquaintance dates back to a brief simultaneous presence behind the front lines of the Iran-Iraq War, the organic connection Ansari holds with the IRGC—which manages the primary financial oligarchy in Iran’s economy—suggests this relationship was forged through the IRGC itself, within whose security apparatus Khamenei played a central role.
This is particularly plausible given that both families already knew each other; Ansari’s father had been appointed by Ali Khamenei to serve on the postwar reconstruction committee following the Iran-Iraq War.
Ali Khamenei’s second son married Zahra Haddad Adel, who was killed in the attack on the supreme leader’s residence. She was the daughter of Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, a senior adviser to the supreme leader with close ties to him, in 1999. Mojtaba Khamenei suffered from sexual impotency and low sperm count, and traveled to London for treatment. Some in Khamenei’s inner circle, however, have attributed the fertility problem to both parties. It can be inferred that Ansari, who was already engaged in business activities in London at the time, may have arranged this through coordination with the Ministry of Intelligence.
According to US State Department documents published by WikiLeaks, Khamenei and Zahra Haddad Adel traveled to London four times, likely between 1998 and 2007, and received fertility treatment at two exclusive clinics—Wellington and Cromwell. It has been reported that the expenses of Khamenei’s final London trip for infertility treatment—which lasted two months and was accompanied by several other family members and bodyguards—amounted to approximately one million pounds. For this reason, his first child, Mohammad Baqer, became privately and jokingly referred to in certain circles as the “1 million pound boy.”
Saeed Emami, deputy minister and then high-consultant of intelligence, who became the principal official in charge of the serial murders of intellectuals and political dissidents in the Islamic Republic, reportedly coordinated Khamenei’s first trip to London, according to leaked documents from the interrogation files of Emami’s wife. It has even been alleged that during the first trip, he accompanied the party using a diplomatic passport. According to accounts, Mojtaba’s mother, who was also killed last week in Beyte Rahbarim, also accompanied the group for a separate surgical procedure.
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Media outlets affiliated with the IRGC immediately published AI-generated and face-enhanced images of Mojtaba Khamenei, including pictures of him alongside his slain father, highlighting that hereditary rule had, once again, returned to Iran after many years. (Tasnim)
From this point onward, during the supreme leader’s son’s successive stays in London, Ansari became known as Khamenei’s financial agent and rapidly rose to become one of the wealthiest businessmen linked to the IRGC in Iran. Prior to this, he had established Ziba Leisure LTD in Nevis and entered the London financial market, which lends weight to the inference that he was the principal facilitator of Khamenei’s covert trip to London for infertility treatment.
Ansari initially built his operation by exploiting state-linked privileges in industry and trade, then expanded his activities into Britain, Switzerland, the UAE, Malaysia, and other countries. Using offshore shell companies—including in the Isle of Man, and alongside Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of Ali Khamenei’s senior military adviser who was killed alongside him—he was able to play a significant role in circumventing sanctions, laundering money for the IRGC and the regime, and financing the IRGC and its proxy groups, particularly Hezbollah, from London and other parts of the world.
Following the registration of the Ziba Leisure LTD holding in Nevis—from which he reportedly also obtained a passport—Ansari established himself as a shareholder and owner across various contracting and commercial companies in London under the name A&A Leisure Limited. This continued until several months ago, when his assets—valued at over £150 million in London—were frozen by the British government on grounds of financing the IRGC. Through affiliated companies operating under his main corporate entity, Smart Global—previously registered as Ziba Leisure—he extended his economic activities across several European countries and the UAE.
Ali Ansari the Iranian business tycoon and Mojtaba Khamenei’s financial operator, has over the past two decades become one of the most influential capitalists in Iran. (Social media)
After the establishment of Ayandeh Bank, Ansari purchased a complex of luxury properties on Bishops Avenue in Hampstead for £73 million and a further apartment in the same area for approximately £34 million in 2013 and 2014. According to Land Registry documents, in 2014 and 2016, he also acquired two apartments near Kensington Palace for a combined value of approximately £35.7 million.
Ansari subsequently entered the prime London property market through Birch Ventures Limited, employing the same model used by Russian oligarchs for property acquisitions and covert financial dealings. The total value of Ansari’s London property portfolio is currently estimated at over £150 million.
Although Ansari’s lawyers have denied placing a portion of these assets and the authority over these properties at the disposal of the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, a source familiar with the Islamic Republic’s financial affairs in Tehran told The Media Line: “The relationship between Ansari and Khamenei is that of devotee and religious authority. In accordance with Shia doctrine, Ansari funds the primary candidate for succession to the leadership under the guise of ‘religious dues,’ which can take various forms, including hiba (gift) or waqf (endowment).”
In effect, by drawing close to Khamenei and financing him, Ansari has facilitated the expansion of his influence within the regime and supported his ambitions to extend the Supreme Leader’s Office into the Islamic Republic’s proxy groups in the region, particularly Hezbollah.
In the early hours of Monday, state news agencies, while introducing Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader, noted that he has maintained close relations with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Even though Mojtaba Khamenei until last year held enormous influence within Ali Khamenei’s office, following the abrupt cancellation of his online religious classes, his name had increasingly faded from the domestic political arena, to the point that even after the death of Ali Khamenei, an eight-day power struggle erupted among the major institutions of the state over his designation as the new supreme leader, as serious questions were raised about his qualifications for the jurisprudential rank of ijtihad and his practical administrative competence.
Yet at the same time, it was clear that the regime had no alternative candidate acceptable to all institutions—including the traditional clergy, the bazaar and business classes, and the IRGC.
The Schloss-Hotel in Kitzbühel, Austria is among Ali Ansari’s assets that have reportedly been placed at the disposal of the Islamic Republic’s new supreme leader. (Facebook)
Tara Kangarlou, a London-based global affairs journalist and the author of Heartbeat of Iran, says that the regime and the Khamenei family have amassed an enormous amount of wealth, ranging from property to, more recently, cryptocurrency. The reality is that a large part of Iran’s economic crisis stems from corruption within the regime itself. A significant portion of this wealth is generated through Europe and the United Kingdom, and we know that many families linked to the regime operate through intermediaries in Britain to conduct business for it, launder money, or help conceal its assets.
Through affiliated companies, Ansari has assembled a vast empire comprising luxury properties in London, two Hilton hotels in Frankfurt, a leisure resort in Camp de Mar in Spain, a shopping centre in Oberhausen in Germany, a ski resort complex in Austria, a penthouse in Toronto, a section of a luxury building in Paris, and various investments and bank accounts in other countries including Switzerland—totaling an estimated €400 million. All of this can serve as a resource for him, as the new supreme leader’s closest ally, to finance the Office of the Supreme Leader and meet its other financial requirements.
In addition to owning Ayandeh Bank, one of Iran’s largest private banks, now declared insolvent following insider lending to his own projects, Ansari also owns the large Iran Mall complex in Tehran and investments in the mobile, telecommunications, hospitality, and industrial manufacturing sectors.
An example of similar lavish duplex apartments in the same area, near the Israeli embassy, which are rented out for around £8,000 per week. (Onthemarket.com)
Among all the properties Ansari has purchased in London and placed at Khamenei’s disposal, one duplex apartment, located at 3 Palace Green, on the sixth and seventh floors, has attracted the most attention. This luxury apartment directly overlooks the Israeli Embassy in London, and even with the naked eye, one can observe all movements and activity within the embassy grounds.
This is particularly significant, given that British security services have recently arrested, in a series of operations, several Iranian men, some of whom had entered the country under the guise of asylum seekers, who had been plotting attacks on the Israeli Embassy, Jewish community centres, and Iranian journalists in London. The most recent such arrests took place on March 6, when four men linked to the intelligence bodies of the Islamic Republic and six suspected accomplices were detained at various locations across London.
Ansari was last seen in Dubai, which appears to be his primary residence. Under normal circumstances, his position as the financial agent of the new supreme leader of the Islamic Republic could have represented an extraordinary opportunity to further accumulate wealth. However, in a situation where the very survival of the Islamic Republic as a regime faces a serious threat, it is unlikely that Ansari is particularly pleased by the news of Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment as the new supreme leader.
